Ride the Dragon: The Integration of the Nodal Axis
The Lunar Nodes are a pair of calculated points regarding the intersection of the Sun’s ecliptic on the Earth and the Moon’s path around the Earth. These change signs approximately every 18 months, and a nodal return occurs every 18 to 19 years, marking the completion of an evolutionary cycle, or a draconic period.
In the natal chart, the Lunar Nodes indicate our soul’s direction in life: where we’ve been and where we come from, what is familiar, comfortable, easy (natural skills), and habitual to us (the South Node), and where we’re destined to grow toward, what our soul growth requires of us, and new, often unfamiliar, and even sometimes uncomfortable experiences and mastery we are evolving toward (the North Node).
In Evolutionary and Esoteric Astrology, the Nodal Axis - the North Node is always in direct opposition to the South Node, forming an axis or a wavelength - is often referred to as the Dragon, with the North Node being the Dragon's Head and the South Node being the Dragon’s tail. Our natal chart’s nodal axis is our personal Dragon. We don’t need to learn to tame it or control it - it is here to teach and train us.
We are each learning how to become our highest selves by aligning with the energy signified by our North Node, or, by going in the direction our personal Dragon is leading us. It’s mystical, magical, and wonderful, and the trick is learning to integrate the two sides of the nodal axis to make a whole energetic wavelength that we can become expert “riders” of.
Dragon wallpaper image, https://wallpaperaccess.com/star-dragon
There is a lot of faith involved in this endeavor. Aligning ourselves with the direction the head of the Dragon is facing or going (North Node) is auspicious and blessed; we will be moving forward in life in the direction we are most meant to go in order to evolve spiritually. However, this may feel strange, awkward, uncomfortable, and even silly to us, because it is an energy that is new to us - we are learning how to master the energy of our North Node in this lifetime. We don’t come into this life knowing how to do it yet. We have to take a leap of faith that we are meant to grow toward and become this type of person and it might feel strange to lean into something that is so new to us. But if we do, we will find ourselves drawn to this energy. It will feel inspiring, exciting, magnetic, and uplifting to us when we step into the role of our North Node. Time falls away and acting from this energy does not feel like work, but like joy. This is how we know we are acting in our highest purpose. It is a leap of faith but highly rewarding. Things will fall into place and doors will open for us when we are acting from our North Node.
If we are more aligned with the tail of the Dragon (South Node), we will find ourselves “chasing our tail” and stagnating, experiencing frustration, angst, and a sense of not progressing in life. Doors won’t open as easily, we will feel bored, stuck in a rut, possibly safe but definitely stagnant and we may experience things going “wrong” for us when we act from the energy of our South Node. We are getting the message that this is not the way that is meant for us. This is how we know we are not acting in our highest good. Things just don’t feel magical or inspiring. We lose our spark.
The dragon needs both its head (North Node) and its tail (South Node)
to be a whole, functioning dragon!
There is a necessary conscious integration we each must make of these energies, using the South Node energy and inborn skills we carry - the things we are naturally really good at, things that we are capable of doing without much effort but that don’t really excite us - to help us lean into and grow toward our North Node. We have to include both - not leave one behind, or curse one as lesser than - to integrate ourselves into wholeness.
Once we can harness our Dragon and learn its name and how to ride it, we can step into our evolutionary purpose and begin to evolve into our higher selves.
I’ll use my own Nodal Axis as an example. With a Virgo South Node, and a large stellium in Virgo in my 9th house, including Lilith, Mars, Mercury, and Pluto, “being Virgo” comes very easily to me. I’m great at data analysis, writing, finding the right, incisive word to say at the right time, and directing my personal power to intuiting wisdom from higher realms. I can exist in my head very easily, and I get drawn into perfection-seeking and anxious overthinking if I am not careful. If I do this only, I get bored, frustrated, and feel depressed. It does not feel fulfilling to me to be solely a data analyst! I need more to inspire me.
But with my Pisces North Node in the 3rd house, I need to learn to let go of being so entrenched in analysis, perfection, and critical discrimination, and learn to have faith in and trust divine timing and find the beauty in wonder in things, and to express myself in a more magical and artistic fashion.
The trick is to not throw out my 9th house Virgo skills, but to use them to help me be an excellent 3rd house Pisces dreamer - because pure dreaming wouldn’t really get me very far. But knowing how to compile data, research diligently, read, write, and study endlessly, and not be averse to hard work definitely helps me to communicate (3rd house) my dreams and intuitive insights effectively in a way that benefits others in soulful service via music, art, and inspiration (Pisces). And thus, I have harnessed and can ride my Dragon!
From the movie Spirited Away; Chihiro riding Haku. Hayao Miyazaki, 2001.
Stepping Into Your Purpose
Aspects to the Nodes
I’ve written before about the Squares to the Nodes in a natal chart and how to work with those, and interestingly I’m currently experiencing transit Uranus in square to my nodal axis and let me tell you, this one is a lot more than I expected. It has sparked this writing because it has illuminated for me - via Uranus’ binary, on-off quality - how different I feel when I am operating from my South Node versus my North Node. When I fall back into my South Node-only stance, I suffer. My work suffers. I feel depressed and anxious. It just doesn’t work out for me. But when I can use my South Node skills to help me lean into my North Node expression, everything falls into place and I feel inspired, energized, enthusiastic, and like I am on the right track. Doors open and opportunities appear. It is truly magical!
The Rulers of each placement are helpful decoders in these puzzles. The Rulers help us understand how and why - and where, depending on the house, which can vary depending on which house system is used - we express these energies the way we do and what we need to express them optimally so to help ourselves along our highest path. To keep this simple, I will stick to the Placidus house system.
Transit Uranus squaring my natal Nodes has felt like riding a cosmic seesaw between the energies of my South Node and those of my North Node, which has been a bit unsettling and discombobulating. It's a binary planet, off and on, up and down, super electric, and Uranus transits can lend itself to mood swings. It feels a bit like jumping between worlds and mindsets, often in rapid succession.
This has allowed me to feel acutely the difference in myself when I am acting from my South Node in Virgo energy (stuck, repeating tired old habits, not progressing, ruminating, depressed, frustrated, and generally experiencing spiritual malaise) versus my North Node in Pisces energy (inspired, interested, curious, released from drudgery, things fall or click into place, openhearted, spiritually uplifted, sense of moving forward in life with faith that everything is going to work out well), and thus enables me to consciously realize the benefits of moving away from - or rather, integrating - my South Node energy and skills so I can move toward my North Node energy. Once this realization happened, a great awakening occurred. Uranus is called The Great Awakener, after all.
Transit Uranus is currently retrograde in early Gemini (it reverts back into Taurus on November 7, 2025 and does not return to Gemini until April 25, 2026). Gemini’s ruler is Mercury
is mental instability; a dual mind in binary motion; bipolar; dry/air/masculine/left brain; restlessness, anxiety, nervousness; Mercury ruled, and I have Mercury in Virgo, and my SN is in Virgo and ruled by Mercury, so the lean is towards the Virgo side, naturally; it's transiting my 6th house so it feels like a hair dryer in the bathtub, plus 6th house is Virgo's house;
The South Node/Dragon’s Tail: strong urge or drive to maintain the status quo; do what you’re naturally good at with no impetus to grow or improve; safety in familiarity; conformity; this only works when you combine it with the ethos of the Dragon’s Head/North Node.
The North Node/Dragon’s Head: A pull toward something you are both fascinated by and yet possibly afraid of; an ideal you don’t feel you quite measure up to and hesitate jumping in with both feet, yet the pull to do it is incredibly strong; when you do step into this energy or role, you feel energized, expansive, and alive, and want to do it more and more, yet you feel like you need constant practice; there isn’t the feeling of instant proficiency like the actions you take that align with your South Node. This only works when you combine it with the ethos of
A Mentor is Helpful
Having a close relationship with someone whose Sun, Moon, or Ascendant (one of the “Big Three” in astrology), or any personal planet (Mercury, Venus, or Mars) conjunct your North Node is incredibly helpful in showing you how living through your North Node - which is foreign to you in this lifetime - should be done.
For those who have their own personal planets conjunct the North Node, this is eased somewhat. But for those who have no planets in their chart in the sign of the North Node, it is incredibly helpful to find someone to act as a mentor to show you how to embody this energy successfully.
A close friend, relative, or even significant other can act as a mentor in this capacity, and they don’t even need to know you are learning from them. Even a celebrity you admire can help you emulate the ethos. This does not mean you need to turn into someone else, only that it helps sometimes to align with someone who already is acting from this energy effortlessly and understands its pitfalls.
One caveat with romantic relationships that have one partner’s planet conjunct the other’s North Node is that while the relationship will be overall beneficial and feel blessed, even “heaven sent,” the planet person will unconsciously take on the role of experienced teacher and the North Node person will gravitate to the role of the student, so there is a potential for power imbalances and struggles if not done consciously and ethically.
Eclipses Are Connected to the Nodes
Eclipses occur when the Sun and Moon form either a conjunction (New Moon) or an opposition (Full Moon) in close proximity to the lunar nodes. This occurs during two periods per year, and is usually in the signs of the lunar nodes, though not always (if the degree of the lunar nodes is near the beginning or end of the signs, an eclipse may occur in the neighboring signs). Astrologically, eclipses act as cosmic, karmic markers along the way to our personal and collective evolution, and whether the eclipsed planet is with the North Node or the South Node indicates if we are growing toward or away from something. (In lunar eclipses, the Full Moon is eclipsed by the Earth passing between the Sun and the Moon; in solar eclipses, the Sun is eclipsed by the Moon during a New Moon.)
In medieval Arabia, it was thought there was an 8th planet that was invisible except during eclipses, of which it was thought to be the cause. This so-called planet was termed “al-Tinnīn” - the Dragon - and the planet was split into two parts representing the lunar nodes, termed the Head (ra’s) and Tail (dhanab) of the mythological dragon. Similarly, the nodes are termed caput draconis (head of the dragon) or cauda draconis (tail of the dragon) in Latin. (From Wikipedia.)
Here Be Dragons
A friend suggested naming these Dragons because it might be cute to know which Dragon Club you belong to, kind of like which Hogwarts House you are in. So, below are the descriptions for each Nodal Axis pairing, along with their magically inspired name.
Cute dragon, from www.ar.inspiredpencil.com
The houses these nodes fall into in your natal chart matters a great deal, too! This, however, can get tricky to decipher and is something I can help you with if you want to learn more about your own Dragon and how to successfully integrate and direct these energies.